end of June, 1991 i was a single mother of two boys, landon 10 yrs., and christian 9 yrs.. we lived a few miles outside of town and in an area where people were always dropping off stray dogs and cats. at some point during this month one of these stray dogs decided to take up residence at our house. i was always cautioning the boys not to pet animals they didn't know...and my boys were always throwing that caution to the wind. one particular day the dog appeared in the back yard and was acting a little strange. not friendly. or playful. but snarling. and for no reason whatsoever...there were no sticks or rocks being thrown, the dog walked up to landon and bit him in the thigh. it broke the skin a little and bled for a couple of minutes, but it seemed to be fine. nothing really to cry over.
then the dog kinda disappeared for a couple of days. we found him, across the street, in the woods. dead. and green. and i panicked. i rushed him up to the drs.office where my sister in law worked as a nurse, and they advised us to start a series of rabies shots, as we didn't know why the dog had died. and because the tests on the dog would take a few days, it would be the safest thing to do. so, off to the health department we went. we lived in a very small town and this particular health department did not keep the rabies vaccine on hand. so we had to drive an hour and a half to west palm beach to the hospital emergency room. (you would think that in a small, rural town, they would keep things like that readily available.) anyway, at that time they had stopped giving the horrible shots in the stomach, Thank You Lord. he got two shots in the bite itself and one in each arm. we were told that he would have to have the complete series, and i think it was over a course of a week. (could be wrong about that.) the next time he needed a shot we had to go to the west coast, an hour and a half away, because again, the health dept. didn't have any vaccine. i worked that morning and then i loaded up the boys in my new ( 6 months old) Chevy corsica, to head over to Ft. Myers for the shot. this was THE DAY my walk with the Lord changed forever. let me back up just a minute.
i was raised by two very Godly parents. my parents prayed for their children every day. probably many, many times a day. they had 5 children. and i was one of them. this alone would give even the most spiritual parent in the world cause to pray! when i was growing up we took many, many road trips because both sets of grandparents lived in GA and we were in FL. i can remember that before every trip my father would pray... for traveling mercies. i never realized then that this simple deed would carry on into my own adulthood, with my own children. but it did.
that particular day was July 2, 1991. we were about an hour into the drive. Garth Brooks' song "The Dance" was playing in the cassette player. (i can not, to this day, listen to this song without having some kind of post traumatic thing.) i was a mother who always wore my seatbelt and always made my boys wear theirs as well. but that day i made a terrible decision ( this is one of those things where God turned a bad decision into a blessing.) the boys were sleepy and i let them take the seatbelts off so they could lay down in the seat. landon was in the back and christian was in the front, leaning against the front door. i took my own seatbelt off as well. in my mind i was thinking that if my kids were going to be at risk, so was i. totally, totally stupid of me. i know. i was driving along, on a two lane road, enjoying the music and traveling at about 60 mph.. the next few things happened simultaneously. the boys woke up. landon sat up and was leaning towards the front seat where the arm rest thingy was, with each of his hands on a headrest. he was saying something to me and in that instant a car that was coming from the opposite direction made a left turn directly in front of me. into nothing. there was no road he was turning into. he just turned. and there was that one split second when i knew absolutely that we were going to hit and there was not even enough time to put my foot on the brake. we hit him with such force that my car spun around three times before it stopped in the same direction as he had turned. i can vividly remember hearing and feeling the two cars hit. the sound of glass shattering, the smell of rubber burning...the screams. when the car came to a complete stop landons head was embedded in the windshield and caught on the windshield wiper blades. christian was slumped over in the seat and in front of him was a huge hole where his head had gone through the windshield and thrown him back into the seat. he was unconscience. landon was screaming. i was screaming and there were suddenly people everywhere. two cars behind me was a state trooper who had witnessed the entire thing. there was a little house right down the street and the lady that lived there had been sitting on the front porch and saw the whole thing. she immediately ran over with towels and there was a little convienence store there and customers came running as fast as they could. the next thing i remember was two men extricating landon from the windshield and placing him in my lap. i think i must have blacked out for a few minutes. when i came too and opened my eyes i saw my 10 yr. old son with the entire top of his head peeled away and bunched up around the back of his neck. he was bleeding profusely and they were trying to stop the bleeding and through all of that i had not even noticed that they had removed christian from the car. when i looked over he was laying on the side of the road with people all around him and i didn't know if he was dead or alive. in a matter of minutes the boys were both placed in a lifeflight helicopter and i was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. again, i must have blacked out because the next thing i remember i was in the er on a table, next to christian. he was crying and they had pulled my gurney right up next to his and he just grabbed hold of my hand. drs. came and told me that they believed he had a torn spleen and internal bleeding and may have broken bones. they told me that i had a severe whiplash and concussion and my lips were split open. but they didn't tell me anything about landon.
about 30-45 minutes later, a surgeon came to me in the er and told me that they had debrided landons head wound and put in internal stitches and staples on the outside. he said that landon had never cried once and in fact, had given the police the name and phone number of his father. They said that one of his ears had been torn completely in half and that had to be sewn and that he had multiple cuts and abrasions to his head and face. they told me that they wanted to put the two of us in a room together because they thought the trauma may be too much for landon to be away from me. they also wanted to warn me what to expect when i saw him so i wouldn't be horrified. (i was still horrified.) they told me how important it would be for landon that i remain as calm as i could. they also told me that they could not clean him up because they were afraid that small slivers of glass would dislodge and cause further damage and possibly get into his eyes. at the time they couldn't tell me whether or not he had suffered any brain damage. then they told me that christian was being taken to the ICU for futher tests and observations and that an operation would be needed to repair his spleen.
i can remember laying on that cold hospital table, naked and alone and just thanking God that my boys were alive. a few minutes later their father arrived, with his sister and brother in law. (my ex-husband and i had remained very close and were still very good friends.) it was a very emotional time in that er room. finally they came and got James, the boys father, and said they wanted him to go up and stay in the ICU with christian and they would be taking me to my room to see landon. when i walked in that hospital room and saw my son...(whew, tears in my eyes now) i can not put into words what i was seeing and feeling. my little boys head was wrapped in gauze, like a turban, and his face was covered in dried blood with glass shards everywhere. his ear was stitched up and clotted with blood. the whole top of his head had been shaved and the hair they had left in the back was just matted with blood and dirt and glass. i could not believe they could leave him there that way. shortly after being reunited there was a knock on the door and this woman and her daughter came in. she took one look at landon and the words that came out of her mouth just blew me away! she said that it was her husband (her 86 yr. old husband) that had hit us. he had alzheimers and was not even supposed to be behind the wheel of a car. he had disappeared that morning and driven who knows where and was trying to find his way back home when he made that fateful turn. and then she said and i quote, "we don't have any money so don't even think about sueing us!" WHAT? was this woman insane? there was a little boy laying in that big hospital bed, covered in blood and gauze, who may never be the same as he was that morning, and she never uttered a word of concern for him. never asked how he was or how i was, or christian. yet she had the audacity to come in my room after i had nearly lost not only my own life, but those of BOTH of my boys! then she turned around and walked out. just as quick as she had come in. by the way, her husband suffered no injuries and was released the same day.)
James, after hearing about the accident, had called his parents, who in turn, called mine. my mother and father were living in savannah at the time. His dad gave them very little information, as he didn't really know much at that point himself. my father tried to call the hospital and get some information, which they were reluctant to give out over the phone. he persisted in telling the woman on the other end of the phone that his daughter and grandchildren were 500 miles away and he didn't know if they were dead or alive...or if he and my mother needed to come to FL or what.finally, they were told the situation. they had run tests on christian and discovered that he did not have any internal bleeding or broken bones and even his spleen was not damaged as they had thought. but they were keeping him in the ICU to monitor him.
the next morning my mother and my sister arrived from GA. they knew that when we were released i would be needing help with the boys. shortly before they arrived, the nurses came in to remove the gauze from landon's head and this is what my mother and sister walked into and what i saw of his head injury for the first time.
three days later they allowed me to be wheeled up to the ICU to see christian for the first time since the accident. his father had stayed with him the entire time. this is christian on that third day. they had just removed the tube from his nose and he was being allowed to eat for the first time.
on the fourth day, landon was released to my mother, as i was still not able to leave the hospital. when she and my sister came to pick him up, they were shocked that they were told they would have to take him out of the hospital, still covered in glass and matted blood and clean him up themselves. they had to go first to the health department to get the rabies vaccine that he was still having to take. then they took him to a barber shop so they could have his hair cleaned and washed. the barber told them that he would not touch him. humiliated for landon, they went to a couple more places, only to have the same response. they finally decided to try one more place and the lady there took such good care of him. (she had to have been a mother.) she picked the glass out and washed his hair and cut it as best she could. he was a sight, for sure. but he walked out of that place with a smile on his face and just as happy as a 10 yr. old could be. he was getting to see his grandma after all! this is landon after the haircut.
the next morning christian and i were released as well. on the way back home we stopped off at the garage where they had towed my car, to get my personal things that were left inside. and this is what we found.
by all accounts from witnesses and drs. and nurses, the three of us should never have survived the accident. my car was completely totaled. in this picture you can see the holes in the windshield where both boys went through the glass.
on this one you can see strands of my hair stuck to the steering wheel, which was completely warped. one of my front teeth had come out (it has since been replaced and no, i'm not toothless.) i ended up with stitches on the inside and outside of my mouth.
the trooper that had been behind my car that day, and had come over to help, had come to visit us one day in the hospital. he said that what was so eerie to him was that the cassette player, which had been playing The Dance, had gotten stuck and during the whole rescue that song played over and over and over. one of landons shoes was found all the way across the street and my watch was found under my car.
after a week in the hospital and a few more days at home, my mother and sister had to go back home. so me and the boys went and stayed at James' mothers house. (his parents were still like my second mama and daddy.) school was getting ready to begin a new year and landon was very self conscious about the way his hair looked. he thought all the kids would laugh and make fun of him. the day before school started a group of his friends came to visit him and they had all gone out and had their hair cut exactly like his. i wish i had taken a picture. but i didn't. it was the sweetest thing i had ever seen such young boys do. we all recuperated and came out of this better for it, i believe.
i had given my heart to Jesus when i was 6 yrs. old. i always knew i was a christian, but my life at the point of the accident, was anything but exemplary. i was not LIVING a christian life. i was in a VERY abusive relationship and i never even talked to God. except when i would be traveling somewhere. and then those prayers of my father would surface and i would always pray a hedge of protection around my vehicle and my family. God provided that protection that day. free of charge. to a girl who was living her life in the fast lane and to her two small boys. this was never more clear to me than when, a year later i remarried in 1992 and had another son, micajah. years later, when micajah was in kindergarten they were told to write a short little story about something they were grateful for. micajah had heard us talk about the accident, but he didn't know any of the details. he was 6 yrs. old and this had happened 7 yrs. before he was born. this, my friends is why i wanted you to read to the end of this story. here, in micajah's own 6 yr. old handwriting is the story he wrote that day.
it reads: For He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. Once win my mom and my brother Landon and Chris, they got in a bad car reck. my brother Landon did not have his seat belt on. he went threw the wind shild. he should have hit the road and died. but angels set him on the front of the car.) his spelling.
i thank GOD that i had parents that prayed for me. they still do. each and every day. and now i have my own children and grandchildren to pray that hedge of protection around.
If you want to pray for your children and their safety and their happiness...then you must first PRAY and invite Jesus into your heart. Only then, will HE hear your prayers. DO IT TODAY!
post note: the dog DID have rabies. a YEAR after the accident landon began having trouble with his teeth. we took him to the dentist where it was discovered that when landon had hit the windshield, it was with such force that it cracked every single one of his molars. he had to have steel bands placed around each tooth to help the tooth bond. they eventually fell off when the teeth fell out. he did not suffer any brain damage (although 18 yrs. later, i have occasional doubts about that! HA! just kidding landon.) christian and i escaped with little physical injuries. but for me, the memories of that horrible day will never leave me.
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3 comments:
Words fail me, but the tears and cries of gratitude to our Heavenly Father for bringing you not only through this, but also closer to Him, are cried out in earnest. I think what struck me the hardest, being i had known of this horrific event, was actually seeing Christian and Landon's little faces and realizing just how little they were!! Praising God for the faithfulness and obedience of your parents, for God tells us that when we train our children up in the ways of the Lord (whether or not as children they (we) are obediant), the children will return to His ways, even after straying far from where he would desire them to be. Thank you for sharing your heart and your testimony. Luvjs ya, my bestie! :-) ♥
Wow! And yet chris still dont wear his seatbelt. Guess ima have to work on that.
This story was emotional for me as I have 2 small children of my own. Thankfully we've never been in an accident but this reminds me that tomorrow is not promised so cherish each moment with your family. Thank you for sharing. Oh, and I'm happy to report that I've gotten to know Landon and he's grown up to be an amazing Christian man, father and husband.
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